CHEVY CHASE, SARCASM & IRONY IN AMERICAN COMEDY

Today, The Grandma has been watching TV. She has chosen some films interpreted by Chevy Chase, the American comedian, writer and actor, who was born on a day like today in 1943.

 

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, writer and actor. Born into a prominent family, he had a variety of jobs before moving into comedy and started acting with National Lampoon.

He became a key cast member in the first season of Saturday Night Live, where his recurring Weekend Update segment became a staple of the show.

As both a performer and writer, he earned three Primetime Emmy Awards out of five nominations.

Chase had his first leading film role in the comedy Foul Play (1978), earning two Golden Globe Award nominations.

He is further known for his portrayals of Clark W. Griswold in five National Lampoon's Vacation films and Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher in Fletch (1985) and its sequel, Fletch Lives (1989).

Other prominent titles include Caddyshack (1980), Seems Like Old Times (1980), Modern Problems (1981), Spies Like Us (1985), Three Amigos (1986), Man of the House (1995), and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010).

He has hosted the Academy Awards twice (1987 and 1988) and briefly had his own late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show (1993). He played the character Pierce Hawthorne on the NBC comedy series Community from 2009 to 2014.

More information: Official Chevy Chase

Cornelius Crane Chase was born in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City on October 8, 1943.

He grew up in Woodstock, New York. His father, Edward Tinsley "Ned" Chase, was a Princeton-educated Manhattan book editor and magazine writer. His mother, Cathalene Parker, was a concert pianist and librettist whose father, Rear Admiral Miles Browning, served as Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's Chief of Staff on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) at the Battle of Midway in World War II.

Chase was educated at Riverdale Country School, an independent day school in the Riverdale neighbourhood of The Bronx, New York City, before being expelled. He ultimately graduated in 1962 from the Stockbridge School, an independent boarding school in the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. At Stockbridge, he was known as a practical joker with an occasional mean streak.

He attended Haverford College during the 1962-1963 term, where he was noted for slapstick comedy and an absurd sense of physical humour, including his signature pratfalls and sticking forks into his orifices.

Chase was a member of an early underground comedy ensemble called Channel One, which he co-founded in 1967. He also wrote a one-page spoof on Mission: Impossible for Mad magazine in 1970 and was a writer for the short-lived Smothers Brothers TV show comeback in the spring of 1975.

Chase made the move to comedy as a full-time career by 1973, when he became a writer and cast member of The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a syndicated satirical radio series.

The National Lampoon Radio Hour also featured John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray, all of whom later became Not-Ready-For-Prime Time Players on NBC Saturday Night, later re-titled NBC's Saturday Night and finally Saturday Night Live.

Chase and Belushi also appeared in National Lampoon's off-Broadway revue Lemmings, a sketch and musical send-up of popular youth culture, in which Chase also played the drums and piano during the musical numbers. He appeared in the film The Groove Tube, which was directed by another co-founder of Channel One, Ken Shapiro, featuring several Channel One sketches.

Chase was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live (SNL), NBC's late-night comedy television show, beginning in October 1975. During the first season, he introduced every show except two, with Live from New York, it's Saturday Night! The remark was often preceded by a pratfall, known as The Fall of the Week.

Chase became known for his skill at physical comedy. In one comedy sketch, he mimicked a real-life incident in which President Gerald Ford accidentally tripped while disembarking from Air Force One in Salzburg, Austria. This portrayal of President Ford as a bumbling klutz became a favourite device of Chase's, and helped form the popular concept of Ford as being a clumsy man. In later years, Chase met and became friendly with President Ford.

Chase was the original anchor for the Weekend Update segment of SNL, and his catchphrase introduction, I'm Chevy Chase… and you're not became well known. His trademark conclusion, Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow was later resurrected by Jane Curtin and Tina Fey. Chase also wrote comedy material for Weekend Update. For example, he wrote and performed The News for the Hard of Hearing.

In this skit, Chase read the top story of the day, aided by Garrett Morris, who repeated the story by loudly shouting it. Chase claimed that his version of Weekend Update was the inspiration for later news satire shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Weekend Update was later revived as a segment on The Chevy Chase Show, a short-lived late-night talk show produced by Chase and broadcast by Fox Broadcasting Company.

More information: Twitter-Chevy Chase

Chase was committed contractually to SNL for only one year as a writer, and became a cast member during rehearsals just before the show's premiere. He received two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his comedy writing and live comic acting on the show.

Chase's early film roles included Tunnel Vision, the box office hit Foul Play, and Oh! Heavenly Dog. The role of Eric "Otter" Stratton in National Lampoon's Animal House was originally written with Chase in mind, but he turned the role down to work on Foul Play.

The role went to Tim Matheson instead. Chase said in an interview that he chose to do Foul Play, so he could do real acting for the first time in his career, instead of just doing schtick.

Chase followed Foul Play with the successful Harold Ramis comedy, Caddyshack, in 1980. That same year, he also reunited with Foul Play co-star Goldie Hawn for Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times.

Chase's career took a downturn in the early to mid-1990s. Chase had three consecutive film flops -1991's Razzie Award- nominated Nothing but Trouble, 1992's Memoirs of an Invisible Man, and 1994's Cops & Robbersons.

In September 1993, Chase hosted The Chevy Chase Show, a weeknight talk show, for the Fox Broadcasting Company.

More information: Instagram-Chevy Chase

 Let's not call physical comedy falling down and pratfalls.
All humor is physical, no matter how you dish it out.
It's timing, like a dancer or an athlete would have.

Chevy Chase